Authorities search US soldier's Netzaberg home for explosives

Stars and Stripes

Published: August 28, 2012

GRAFENWÖHR, Germany — Army criminal investigators and German police searched the off-post home of a 30-year-old U.S. soldier whose Facebook account suggested he was storing explosives, according to officials.

The unnamed soldier was detained Monday night for questioning and released after investigators realized there was no threat, according to a spokesman for the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, the soldier’s unit. The soldier was not charged, the spokesman said.

“There was a posting on his Facebook (account) and that caused an alarm, and there was nothing to be found,” said Staff Sgt. Mark Albright. “And they released him. And that was it.”

Albright said he didn’t see the Facebook page and didn’t know what the soldier posted.

The soldier’s lived in Netzaberg, an Army community located immediately outside the post gates and under the jurisdiction of the German town of Eschenbach.

Gerd Schäfer, leading prosecutor from the nearby city of Weiden, said Army investigators asked German authorities for help searching the home. He said evidence in the case met Germany’s legal standard for searching a home. The soldier’s statements convinced investigators he may have explosives, he said.

“The notes from the Internet were unambiguous,” the prosecutor said. “When I have such a clear indication and then, moreover, when I see a potential danger which was given by the significant quantities of explosives which we had to believe the soldier was in possession of, there was no way of not searching the house.”